Artificial fuel



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. FREEMAN, OF LOUISVILLE, COLORADO.

ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

flPE-Z'IPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 393,427, dated November 27, 1888.

Application filed June 20, 1588. Serial No. 277.062. (No Specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. FREEMAN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Louisville, in the county of Boulder and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Composition for Artificial Fuel, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a new composition of matter to be used as a fuel for all the purposes and uses to which ordinary lump coal may be applied.

It is well known that a large, even a very great, amount of coal slack and dust and pulverized coal accumulates around allcoal-mines and at yards and depots where large quantities of coal are stored and handled. Owing to the difficulty of causing such material to burn, unless specially constructed and devised furnaces be used therefor, its conditions not permitting the access of oxygen in sufficient quantities to its particles for effective combustion, and owing, also, to the difficulty of transporting and handling it, this slack and pulverized material has been permitted to go largely to waste, entailing an entire loss of the time, money, and labor expended in mining it, and this, notwithstanding the fact that it is rich, as rich as ordinarylump coal, in all the usual heat giving elements.

The object of my invention, therefore, is to produce a composition in which such now waste material may be so combined with other material as to be again fitted for use as fuel with ordinary furnaces and appliances, a composition of cheap manufacture, readily made, of such absorbent capacity that a large quantityof petroleum may be taken up thereby and safely burned, of great heating capacity, adapted to be formed into shape convenient for transportation and use; to which end it consists in the features more particularly hereinafter described and claimed.

In practicing myinvention coal slack or dust or finely-pulverized coal,clay, plaster-of-paris, and petroleum-oil are combined together in the following proportions and manner: Coal dust or slack, one-half to three-fourths, by weight; clay, onequarter to onehalf, by Weight; plaster-of-paris, two pounds to a ton of mixed coal and clay; petroleum, as hereinafter indicated.

The clay is reduced to a fine even powder and the proper proportion of plasterof-paris (which would be about four pounds to the ton of clay) added thereto and thoroughly mixed therewith. The coal is also brought to a finelycomminuted condition, and equal parts, by weight, or about equal parts of the coal and the clay with its mixed plaster-of-paris are thoroughly mixed together. To this material is then added sufficient water to permit it to be kneaded into a homogeneous plastic mass, which is then molded or formed into blocks of any desired shape or size. A convenient and preferable way of such molding is to press the material into proper molds to form bricks or blocks approximating six by four by three inches, such shape and size being convenient for handling, for storing, for transportation, and for use in stoves and furnaces. The molded bricks or blocks are then dried, which may be done by exposure either to the sun and air or by artificial heat in suitable rooms or kilns. After the bricks or blocks are thoroughly set and dried they are saturated with petroleum, and such saturation may be by immersion and soaking in a vat or tank of petroleum, or by spraying or flowing the petroleum over the bricks or blocks, or by any other method adapted to bring the petroleum and the bricks in such relation to each other that the bricks may absorb the petroleum. The function of the large percentage of clay used is the absorption of a large quantity of petroleum, affording means of safely utilizing a considerable amount of that powerful and cheap fuel, as such blocks will retain nearly all the absorbed petroleum until used. Thus combined a very effective and powerful heat-giv- I ing fuel is formed whose power may be i11- creased by heating the bricks or blocks prior to the introduction of the petroleum thereto, and then saturating them therewith while in a heated condition, as in such condition the bricks or blocks will absorb and holdagreater percentage of petroleum than when cold.

For the purposes of this invention crude petroleum is a very cheap and suitable form of the oil, and this composition affords a means of utilizing perfectly as a heat-producing medium two of the commonest and cheapest carbonaceous matters to be found-waste or slack coal or culm and crude petroleum.

I am aware that it has been proposed to mix coal-dust, clay, Water, and coal-tar or petroleum, incorporating the same with a shovel and throwing the compound immediately into a furnace; but such I do not claim, for such compound is unfitted for one end I attain-tl1e preparation of fuelhloeks adapted to be transported, stored until needed, and then safely used. I am also aware that it has been proposed to mold a mixture of coal-dust and plasterof-paris or clay, the latter in a small cementing percentage only, some six per cent.; and such I do not claim, as such is unfitted for another end I attain-the absorption, storage,

and burning safely of considerable quantities 'of petroleum; but 

